Doctor Who: 5 of the greatest Doctor performances in a first episode

Can Capaldi put in a first performance to rival these greats? (Picture: BBC /Adrian Rogers)

With Peter Capaldi about to make his full episode debut as The Twelfth Doctor in Doctor Who, and most impressively so we might add, here’s a look back at the very best of those first outings for the new Doctors.

5. Paul McGann, 1996 TV Movie

Definitely not one the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time (and certainly not one of the worst either), this slice of mid-Nineties fun saw Withnail And I’s Paul McGann enter the TARDIS with more confidence than almost all of his predecessors.

Taking the role on with all of his delightful charm, the Liverpudlian actor made his mark instantly and originally.

Sadly, however, he wouldn’t be seen again until 2013 as the Eighth Doctor.

After appearing in the TV movie in 1996 Paul McGann wouldn’t be seen in the TARDIS again until 2013 (Picture: BBC)

4. David Tennant, The Christmas Invasion

Though he spent half of the 2005 Christmas special lying around in bed not doing much, when he did get up, the Scotsman meant business.

Within minutes he was flirting with Billie Piper, quoting The Lion King, getting his hand cut off in a duel with an alien and then saving the Earth. Oh, and all while wearing a dressing gown.

Tennant spent most of his first episode in pyjamas (Picture: BBC, Mike Hogan)

3. William Hartnell, An Unearthly Child

There’s a reason why this old chap gets called ‘The Guv’nor’.

Like the previously mentioned McGann and Tennant, Hartnell takes his time before getting in on the action, but when he does, oh boy, he makes sure you’re in no doubt who is The Doctor.

Grumpy, crotchety and a little bit mean – this guy has it going on!

Grumpy and a bit mean – the first Doctor (Picture: BBC)

2. Matt Smith, The Eleventh Hour

If Tennant’s first outing didn’t contain much Tennant-ness, then his successor was the opposite.

From start to finish, this is most ardently The Matt Smith Show. Complemented by one of the greatest first stories for a Doctor, Smith’s Time Lord had won everyone over by the time he’d started chomping down on fish fingers and custard.

First episodes don’t get much trickier than this one. Not only was it the first episode of a new Doctor, it was also the very first episode of Doctor Who’s return to television in 2005.

Much was riding on the quality of the debut outing for the revitalised show and thanks to Eccleston and his magnificent performance as the Time Lord, its success was never in question.

Immediately, his spark with Rose was evident but it was Chris’s very human, dramatic and personal touches, all abundant in this story, that made the world fall in love him, and the Doctor. And Doctor Who.

The hardest job in Who history – relaunching the show after a long hiatus (Picture: BBC)

You can catch Peter Capaldi as The Twelfth Doctor in Deep Breath on Aug 23 at 7.50pm on BBC One.

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